100 Poetry Books Everyone Should Read

11 Comments

  1. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison August 29, 2012 at 1:50 pm .

    Thanks for the link, Tony.

  2. Tony in Devon
    Tony in Devon August 29, 2012 at 1:03 pm .

    Thank you for your list. I've put a link to your blog in http://www.PoemsPlease.me – Tony

  3. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison August 27, 2012 at 6:08 pm .

    I keep returning to Oppen but he doesn't move me the way Niedecker does; his poems strike me as exquisitely shaped statements, while hers are discoveries—continual discoveries, I mean, fresh and involving every time. I'd take Reznikoff over Oppen, too, and I actively dislike Zukofsky. Utterly subjective, needless to say. Some vibrations will always remain above or below one's range of

  4. JforJames
    JforJames August 27, 2012 at 5:33 pm .

    At least for 20th Century, and for the US, Dove got her chance, and she certainly got some screeching &#39;feedback&#39;, for her recent Penguin Anthology of 20C American Poetry. She got the most criticism for her lack of Plath (you&#39;ve got her) and Ginsberg (you by-passed him); which was apparently due to the highway robbery of reprint/rights.<br /><br />For me, Dove&#39;s biggest miss was

  5. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison August 26, 2012 at 4:05 pm .

    Thanks for the comments, James. I was in a quandary about a lot of these choices. Certainly every poet you mention would be on an English-language list, but with &quot;world poets&quot; in mind I found myself cutting more and more poets from our own tradition. Maybe it&#39;s a reverse bias! Anyway, I&#39;d love to see a &quot;100&quot; list of world poets put together by Rita Dove and Amiri

  6. JforJames
    JforJames August 26, 2012 at 2:11 pm .

    I applaud your list for the number of non-English language poets included. Of course, then we have to drill down to particular translations, which in way are different books.<br /><br />It does seem you skip from a smattering of ancients (Greek/Roman) over several centuries English poetry, with just a few stops (Shakespeare, Keats) along the way. Certainly one should have a bit of Sydney, Jonson,

  7. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison August 25, 2012 at 5:49 pm .

    I could be talked into trading Larkin for Ginsberg easily. (Larkin was no Ted Hughes.) O&#39;Hara and Crane, I just don&#39;t see it. Thanks for the Parzival info. I found several copies but can&#39;t afford them. Damn.

  8. Peter
    Peter August 25, 2012 at 4:10 pm .

    Only verse translation of Parzival I know of is Edwin Zeydel&#39;s from 1969, U. of N. Carolina Press, hard to find. If you&#39;re going to include Plath and Irving Layton you&#39;ve got to admit Ginsberg&#39;s Howl and yes, both O&#39;Hara and Crane are &#39;world poets&#39; as much as Martinson and Larkin, I think. Thanks again!

  9. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison August 24, 2012 at 7:56 pm .

    Wonderful! You&#39;ve put your finger on holes in my own experience. I don&#39;t know Penna but will track him down. Wolfram I&#39;ve read only in Helen Mustard&#39;s prose translation and so forgot he was writing in verse. Do you know a good verse translation? Crane I&#39;m dubious about, O&#39;Hara more so; neither seems like a &quot;world poet&quot; to me. Novalis&#39;s <i>Hymns</i>—yes …

  10. Peter
    Peter August 24, 2012 at 6:45 pm .

    Should be Novalis, Hymns to the Night, not Songs of the Night.

  11. Peter
    Peter August 24, 2012 at 5:20 pm .

    Nice list overall. Some arguable contenders: Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival; Novalis, Songs of the Night; Hart Crane, White Buildings; Frank O&#39;Hara, Lunch Poems; Sandro Penna, Country Cemetery (over Saba). Thanks!

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